Ian Rankin collaborates on Rory Gallagher crime CD

Ian Rankin has been confirmed as chief collaborator on a new, crime-inspired special release featuring the music of Irish guitar legend Rory Gallagher.

Entitled Kickback City, the unique immersive album is inspired by the crime noir passion and music of Rory Gallagher. Featuring a specially compiled album of Rory Gallagher’s best crime novel-influenced music, the package also includes an exclusive new novella by Ian Rankin - The Lie Factory - fully illustrated by graphic artist Timothy Truman. Rory’s lyrics and song titles are woven into the story. The album package also includes a special narration of the story by Irish actor Aidan Quinn.

Rory Gallagher was a huge fan of the crime noir genre and much of his work was inspired by the characters and themes found in the detective novels of authors like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

Equally, the award-winning Ian Rankin and his hard-boiled, hard-living central protagonist, Detective Inspector John Rebus, are great fans of Rory’s work.

“I was approached by Rory’s brother Donal Gallagher who asked if I knew that Rory was a big fan of crime fiction," says Rankin. "And of course when you look at the songs, the lyrics and especially the titles – 'Kickback City', 'Continental Op' (the title of a Dashiell Hammett book) – it all makes sense.

"Donal mentioned that he was thinking of putting together an album of Rory’s songs that are to do with crime and thriller elements and asked if I wanted to get involved. It was great fun and writing the story for the Rory Gallagher album was just obvious to me: it would be noir, the classic Raymond Chandler or Philip Marlowe private eye.”

Kickback City comes complete with visuals created by illustrator Timothy Truman (DC Comics / First Comics). Also a life-long Rory Gallagher fan, the musician, writer and illustrator has been working in the graphic novel industry since the 80’s and is internationally known for his art design for the Grateful Dead.

“I turned on to Rory’s work in 1973 when I was a junior in high school in West Virginia. One Friday night," Truman says, "I turned on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert and that’s when I first saw Rory. He immediately blew me away. I thought he was the greatest guitarist and performer I’d ever seen and I’ve been a devoted follower ever since.”

Kickback City will be packaged like a hardback book housing 3 audio discs, including an audio version of the book read by Hollywood Actor Aidan Quinn (Legends Of The Fall,Michael Collins), the 44-page novella The Lie Factory and four ‘crime scene’ postcards.

As well as the crime inspired Rory Gallagher compilation album, the set also includes a collection of live ‘crime’ tracks (Kickback City Live) recorded at the Cork Opera House, never before available as an audio release.

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It was Wednesday June 14th, 1995, when the terrible news of Rory Gallagher’s death was first phoned through to the Hot Press office. In more ways than one, it was the end of an era. On Wednesday November 8th, a commemoration service was held at Brompton Oratory in London. The ceremony ended with a tribute, which was delivered by Niall Stokes, editor of Hot Press. As a special remembrance of Rory, on what would have been his70th birthday, we reproduce here the full text of that tribute.

10 Years After: Remembering Rory Gallagher

One of the most iconic Irish musicians ever, Rory Gallagher died on June 14 1995. In 2005, he was commemorated with a comprehensive retrospective, Big Guns – The Very Best Of Rory Gallagher. His brother, Donal Gallagher, who was both manager and mentor to Rory, talked to Colm O’Hare about the work involved in compiling the album, the guitarist’s legacy – and the fascinating story of how he nearly joined the Rolling Stones.

Rory Gallagher live DVD number 1 in Germany

Meeting with the G-Man

This album closes with a rendition of ‘La Bamba’ (replete with an organ sound made entirely from cheese) that’s marked by the stinging clarity of Gallagher’s guitar tone and the throwaway rasp of his vocal.

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Wheels Within Wheels

The art of darkness

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